You Matter...

"Humankind has not woven the web of life. 

We are but one thread within it.

Whatever we do to the web,

we do to ourselves. 

All things are bound together.

All things connect."

~Chief Seattle

Sept. 9, 2008

Sylvie- you and I will stand side by side revolutionizing a sacred feminine movement.

I twill start with event with the women we know

and it will grow form there...

It is thru both of our journey;s that we will 

bring together worlds.

Our view are diverse

thus

representing the diversity in creation, human life, mother nature.

(me and Sylvie)

That journal excerpt was a premonition that I received from my spirit guide Arlene 

while journalling one morning a coffee house

I wrote down as it came to me

and the next day called her to tell her.

we were surprised

and yet not

 and even

a little scared

lol

(just had to share these funny shots)

But we were open and waited

till we both felt the time was right.

At the end of summer I once again felt the push

to discuss it with her.

Even as I walked up the hill to the coffee house we had arranged to meet

I heard the voice of doubt

"Why bother"

"Don't bring it up...it will be too hard."

Do you thing you could really do it???"

But my journey has taught me to face my fears

and I wanted to move through this one

I trusted what was given to me those years ago

and trusted the press I felt on my heart

to revisit that place

so we met

and I place it out again before her

my desire to unite with her

and facilitate woman's workshops

She was open

and after some time we made plans 

for our first collaboration.

And that collaboration birthed our Workshop

"You Matter"

*

Thirteen woman gathered in a beautiful setting

we opened heart

shifted thought 

realized just how connected we are

reconnected with ourselves

opened up to connections with others

envisioned ourselves as threads

in the beautiful tapestry of life

seeing how each thread is as important as the other

there was the realization 

that we all come from the same Source

and in each other 

we see ourselves.

"It really boils down to this: 

that all life is interrelated. 

We are all caught in an 

inescapable network of mutuality, 

tied into a  single garment of destiny.

Whatever affects one destiny, 

affects all indirectly. "

~ Martin Luther King Jr.

The journey of connection begins with self.

how we connect with ourselves

reflects in how we connect with others

and the world around us.

 "Your body has many parts—limbs, organs, cells—but no matter how many parts you can name, you're still one body. It's exactly the same with God. By means of  God's Spirit, we all say good-bye to our partial and piecemeal lives. We each used to independently call our own shots, but then we entered into a large and integrated life in which he has the final say in everything. Each of us is now a part of Love's body, refreshed and sustained at one fountain where we all come to drink. The old labels we once used to identify ourselves are no longer useful. We need something larger, more comprehensive.
 I want you to think about how all this makes you more significant, not less. A body isn't just a single part blown up into something huge. It's all the different-but-similar parts arranged and functioning together. If Foot said, "I'm not elegant like Hand, embellished with rings; I guess I don't belong to this body," would that make it so? If Ear said, "I'm not beautiful like Eye, limpid and expressive; I don't deserve a place on the head," would you want to remove it from the body? If the body was all eye, how could it hear? If all ear, how could it smell? As it is, we see that Love has carefully placed each part of the body right where it is needed.
But I also want you to think about how this keeps your significance from getting blown up into self-importance. For no matter how significant you are, it is only because of what you are a part of. An enormous eye or a gigantic hand wouldn't be a body, but a monster. What we have is one body with many parts, each its proper size and in its proper place. No part is important on its own. Can you imagine Eye telling Hand, "Get lost; I don't need you"? Or, Head telling Foot, "You're fired; your job has been phased out"? As a matter of fact, in practice it works the other way—the "lower" the part, the more basic, and therefore necessary. You can live without an eye, for instance, but not without a stomach. When it's a part of your own body you are concerned with, it makes no difference whether the part is visible or clothed, higher or lower. You give it dignity and honor just as it is, without comparisons. If anything, you have more concern for the lower parts than the higher. If you had to choose, wouldn't you prefer good digestion to full-bodied hair?
 The way our bodies are designed is a model for understanding our lives together as a community: every part dependent on every other part, the parts we mention and the parts we don't, the parts we see and the parts we don't. If one part hurts, every other part is involved in the hurt, and in the healing. If one part flourishes, every other part enters into the exuberance."
~ The Bible

" It is man's social nature 

which distinguishes him from the brute creation.

If it is his privilege 

to be independent

it is equally his duty to be

inter-dependent.

Only an arrogant man will claim

to be independent of everyone else

and be self-contained"

~ Mahatma Gadhi

For our first go 

it was a great day

nervous butterflies and all.

What a privilege to spend the day

with such courageous group of women

Women willing to go out on a limb

for growth and expansion.

a privilege

a gift

*

We will be running this workshop again

Oct. 27th-2012

Feb. 23rd-2013

May 4-2013

if you are looking for a place to connect

*keep  us in mind* 

*

I can't be me

with out you

Love and Light

Mondays Offering...for all the senses

yesterday

this offering lay upon my front deck

too beautiful to not share

the visual

with you

I also offer words

words

from a powerful book I am currently

marinating in

"Women Who Run With the Wolves"

by Clarissa Pinkola Estes, Ph.D.

from Chapter One

The Howl: Resurrection of the Wild woman

"~We all begin as a bundle of bones lost somewhere is a desert,

a dismantled skeleton that lies under the sand.

It is our work to recover the parts.....

*

~a woman arrives in this world-between-worlds through yearning and by seeking something she can see just out of the corner of her eye...

*

~When we touch the authentic fundament of The One Who Knows, it causes us to react and act form our deepest integral nature...

*

~Our work is to show we have been breathed upon--to show it, give it out, sing it out, to live in the topside world what we have received through our sudden knowings, from body, from dreams and journeys of all sorts...

*

~This is our meditation practice as women, calling back the dead and dismembered aspects of ourselves, calling back the dead and dismembered aspects of life itself. The one who re-creates from that which has died is always a double sided archetype. the Creation Mother is always also the Death Mother and vice versa. Because of this dual nature, or double-tasking, the great work before us is to learn to understand what around and about us and what within us must live, and what must die.

Our work is to apprehend the timing of both

to allow what must die to die

and what must live to live."

and then there is song

this one has been playing about

an offering to listen

"I feel the weight of the world on my shoulder
As I'm gettin' older, y'all, people gets colder
Most of us only care about money makin'
Selfishness got us followin' our wrong direction

Wrong information always shown by the media
Negative images is the main criteria
Infecting the young minds faster than bacteria
Kids wanna act like what they see in the cinema

Yo', whatever happened to the values of humanity
Whatever happened to the fairness in equality
Instead of spreading love we're spreading animosity
Lack of understanding, leading us away from unity

That's the reason why sometimes I'm feelin' under
That's the reason why sometimes I'm feelin' down
There's no wonder why sometimes I'm feelin' under
Gotta keep my faith alive till love is found
Now ask yourself

Where is the love?"

Its a new day

It's a new week

Spread some Love

Share some wisdom

We can not be whole

without each others connection

I can not be me

without you

Love and Light

Keeping it Real

Keeping it Real with the lovely

Monica over at Ink and Chai

Every Friday 

Monica invites her readers to

"Share your own ups-downs, lows-highs, hits-misses, dark-light,
peaks-valleys, plus-minuses,
as we keep the blogosphere real."

The Ebb:

~time stretched, demands not met easily

~the feeling of "overwhelmed" visited a little too much

~the rains that would not stop

~missing my favorite yoga class

*

~he came home

~finding a robins nest behind the shed...

(complete with mama, papa and eggs)

~planting the rest of my flowers

~getting some more ink work done
~facilitating a brand new workshop
with a sister
 successfully


link up here


*
"Connection begins with self" ~ CB


Love and Light

He came home...

He came home...

Time had worn things thin

The familiar longed to be

felt neat by

Remembering...

Knowing...

not really ready

for it to be over

But

Longing...

to fly on his own

He came home

the natural process disturbed

wanting a different ending

realizing another outcome

Seeing...

Experiencing...

The grass might not be greener.

By his own will

On his own terms

He came back home

So he can better prepare

for the time

When he shall leave again...

*

Love and Light

The Wisdom Club discusses The White Masia

Last week Friday my book club gathered together

to discuss 

The White Masia

by Corinne Hofmann

The Wisdom Club is a group of 12 diverse woman

ranging form their thirties- sixties

they are amazing women

that I am honoured and privileged to gather with 

every two months or so

We alternate between fiction and non fictions

to keep it interesting 

and focus on reading books

that specifically pertain to the lives

and growth 

of women

as there usually is when women gather...

there is great conversation

and even better food ...

this non-fiction book gave us a lot to talk about

and the group teetered between feeling that author was a complete *whack job* (love you Claire)

and the feeling of awe that she lived this incredible life 

-even though it did not last-

for a love she felt was worth giving her whole world up for

The White Masai is a story about a woman who goes to Kenya on a vacation with he then  fiance.
While there she meets and falls in love with an African warrior.


"At long last we get on board, and then the unimaginable happens. Marco says, "Corinne, look over there, on the other side, thats a Masai!" "Where?" I ask, and look where he is pointing. And then it's as if I've been struck by lightening. A tall, dark brown, beautiful man lounging on the quayside looking at us, the only white people in the throng, with dark eyes. My God, he's beautiful, more beautiful than anyone I've ever seen." pg 2


The book covers almost 4 years of Corrine leaving all she knows in Switzerland and going back to Kenya to find her warrior. Whom she subsequently lives with, marries and has a child with.


The book is a little wordy, but a fascinating story.
I was torn at, times wondering how she could be so completely naive,
and yet other times I was in complete awe of her tenacity and her commitment to attaining what she wanted.


I don't think I could have gone the lengths that she could, leaving a home of comforts to live in a dung hut...mmmm
probably not
but I am glad she did as I was able to read of her adventure 
and live vicariously 
through her story.

There became an element of abuse that transpired between her and her husband over time; and this was a topic of great concerned with many of the women in the group.
I think for myself, knowing the out come from reading the book enabled me to be not so focused on that aspect. Though in saying that , there was a very valid concern and reflection.


I felt, as some other's did in our group, that for whatever reason this was her life path.
She saw something she wanted and she pursued it.
Now in the end
as everything
unless the parties involved are working towards a mutual goal
things eventually will deteriorate and fall apart,
as was the case for Corinne and her African Warrior.


I could definitely relate to her desire though,
having been struck by lightening a few times myself
Has that ever happened to you?
You seen something or someone and felt an instant connection
feeling like if you don't connect with "it" 
something inside you will die?
It is an amazing sensation.

So I would recommend this book for an 
easy, 
fascinating read.
I don't think it will remain on my shelf forever.
I have a feeling I will be passing it on.
But I am glad it came to visit : )


*


Love and Light